Defence Legislation Amendment (Discipline Reform) 2021

✦ Plain-English Summary

# Defence Legislation Amendment (Discipline Reform) 2021

## What it does
This law changes how the military handles discipline for junior officers and lower-ranked defence members. Instead of going through formal court-martial proceedings for minor offences, eligible personnel can choose a faster "infringement scheme" to resolve disciplinary matters. The bill also removes one level of military authority that previously heard discipline cases and creates some new military offences.

## Why it matters
For service members, this means quicker resolutions for minor breaches without the formality and stress of full court proceedings. For the military, it streamlines the disciplinary process and reduces backlog. However, it's worth noting that choosing this faster route means giving up certain legal protections that come with formal hearings.

## Key details
- **Who's affected**: Junior officers and lower-ranked defence members (not senior officers)
- **Choice, not force**: Members can *elect* to use the infringement scheme—they're not forced into it
- **Timeline**: The main changes (Schedules 1-3) come into effect on a date to be announced by the government, with a 12-month deadline; the bill already received Royal Assent

Official Description

Amends the: Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 to: expand the operation of the disciplinary infringement scheme to provide a means of dealing with minor breaches of military discipline; remove the subordinate summary authority and correct a number of anomalies with regard to the respective jurisdiction of discipline officers and summary authorities, and between the different types of summary authority, in relation to the type of breach of military discipline, the rank of defence members with which each can deal, and the powers and punishments available to each level of authority; establish new service offences for failure to perform duty or carry out an activity, cyber-bullying, failure to comply with removal order (in relation to material on social media that constitutes cyber-bullying) and failure to comply with requirement to notify change in circumstances (in relation to the receipt of a benefit or allowance); and make amendments contingent on the commencement of the Online Safety Act 2021 ; and Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 and Defence Force Discipline Appeals Act 1955 to make consequential amendments.

Committee Referrals

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights; Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee

Full bill PDF →APH page →

Audit History

Introduced

12 Aug 2021

Last updated on APH

10 Apr 2026

Outcome date

13 Dec 2021

Last checked by Crossbench

2 days ago

Full text indexed

2 days ago

🗳️

No formal division recorded

This bill passed by voice vote — parliament agreed without calling a formal count. A division is only recorded when a member explicitly requests one.

Constituent votes

Voting is closed — this bill has been decided by parliament.

No votes yet.

No votes were recorded for this bill.

🔒 Voting closed — this bill has been decided by parliament